The history of STC

The paper concentrates on the technical history of STC PLC, spanning just over 100 years. In that time the company has grown from an importer of technology to an originator and developer, mainly in telecommunications. It began in the City of London in 1883 as a two-man one-boy branch of the American manufacturer Western Electric, became part of ITT in 1925 and in 1982, just before its centenary, a majority-owned British company. In 1984 it acquired ICL and today claims to be the largest British manufacturer in information technology. The company´s discontinuous progress is traced. Its principal elements are what was technically possible at various times, the culture in which engineers worked, and relationships across the Atlantic and with telecommunications authorities.